Includes stories by Frances Mayes, Anne Lamott, Pam Houston, Mary Morris, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin

For the first time, women have confident and adventurous role models who dare to venture off the beaten path and far beyond the bus tour. Only a few generations ago, it was rare for women to travel without a male companion. Today, more women are traveling than ever before, and quite a few of them are writing about their experiences.

Marybeth Bond's bestselling first collection of travel stories, A Woman's World: True Stories of Life on the Road, published in 1995, chronicled and celebrated the diverse and bold new ways women are exploring the planet. A Woman's World won the prestigious Lowell Thomas Award for Best Travel Book of the Year and elicited not only critical praise but thousands of enthusiastic letters from readers. There are now more than 60,000 copies in print.

The overwhelming reaction to A Woman's World compelled Marybeth Bond and Pamela Michael to publish another collection. A showcase of the best women's travel writing today, A Woman's Passion for Travel: More True Stories from A Woman's World (October 1999; Trade Paperback Original) collects more than forty true stories from women, including stories by Frances Mayes, Anne Lamott, Pam Houston, Mary Morris, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin. Women of all ages and backgrounds write about taking risks, learning, and pursuing their passions.

As demonstrated throughout this collection, sometimes women use travel to discover themselves and to move forward in life, to make changes that would be harder to make at home. For most women, what makes a journey rich and memorable is not so much the places they visit, but the people they meet. Indeed, developing or deepening a relationship can be the most important aspect of a journey. In "The Center of Nowhere," Barbara Ras and her daughter find out each other's strengths and weaknesses on the back of an Alaskan dogsled. An impromptu outing in Barcelona with an older woman relieves exchange student Aleta Brown's loneliness in "Jump."

Another frequent theme is personal safety, especially for women traveling alone. In "Guardians of the Dark," Marybeth Bond travels alone with her young daughters in Mexico and discovers how women watch out for each other even when their backgrounds differ. The night of terror in Paris described in Claire Tristam's "Why I Have Never Seen the Mona Lisa Smile" is a chilling reminder to all women about the special risks women face on the road.

A Woman's Passion for Travel provides a true community of women swapping stories that not only inspire the reader's zest for adventure but also provide insight into women's unique perspective traveling around the globe. Through stories of courage and confidence, independence and introspection, this collection takes us closer to the heart of womanhood.

Each story in A Woman's Passion for Travel will move readers--perhaps even to the road itself.

About the Editors

Marybeth Bond and Pamela Michael have almost a century of combined experiences covering a wide range of global travel. Marybeth, "The Travel Expert" for iVillage.com and a radio host for the nationally syndicated Outside Radio Show, traveled to over 40 countries before the age of 40 and now travels with her two children. She is the author of Gutsy Women and Gutsy Mamas, editor of A Woman's World, and coeditor of A Mother's World.

Pamela Michael is a freelance writer, radio host and producer, and curriculum development specialist who began traveling to exotic places in mid-life and is still going strong. She is co-editor, with Marybeth Bond, of A Mother's World and editor of The Gift of Rivers (forthcoming).

About Travelers' Tales

Founded in 1993, Travelers' Tales is devoted to a new kind of travel book, one that paints a portrait of a country through the experiences of many travelers. Travelers' Tales showcases true stories and supporting anecdotes to create the depth of understanding that can only come from people who have been there. The series includes country and regional guides, body and soul, trouble and survival, women's travel, special interest, and, most recently, the series Footsteps: The Soul of Travel, featuring single-author travel narratives.